Friday, April 17, 1998 Published at 11:49 GMT 12:49 UKWorld: EuropeA shroud of doubtJesus was said to have been wrapped in the shroud after being taken down from the cross

Ever since it was first photographed 100 years ago, the Turin Shroud has been dogged by controversy.

The delicate linen sheet, believed by some to be the cloth in which Jesus was wrapped after being taken down from the cross, is dismissed by others as an elaborate hoax.

But, according to the saying, no publicity is bad publicity, and the shroud is thought to be the single most studied artefact in history.

Carbon dating

Since it last went on show to the public in 1978, the debate has swung both ways.

The Radio Carbon Accelerator Unit at Oxford University which tested the shroud in the 1980s

The results of carbon dating tests in 1979 revealed it to be a fake, said scientists. No, said supporters who refused to believe science could topple their sacred beliefs.

Nine years later results of more refined carbon dating techniques, carried out by three universities, again concluded the shroud was phoney. It dated from some time between 1260 and 1390 scientists claimed.

That led to the humiliating spectacle of the then Cardinal of Turin, Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero, admitting the garment was a hoax.

Believers keep faith

But believers kept faith and more recently have been rewarded. Last year a Swiss archaeologist who spent 16 years studying the shroud said new tests had proved its authenticity "beyond all reasonable doubt".

In 1988 the shroud was revealed as a fake

The archaeologist, Maria Grazia Siliato, explained away the carbon dating results. The analysed piece of cloth had come from a "darned on" repair carried out in the Middle Ages, she said.

She said new research in Paris had revealed the words "Jesus" and "Nazareth" written on the cloth shortly after the body was wrapped in it.

The two said studies done through a microscope show a filmy layer of fungi and bacteria which built up over the centuries. This, they contend, confused the carbon dating process and made the linen appear more recent than it is.

Their theory is that the ghostly image on the cloth was also made by bacteria from the skin of the man it tightly wrapped.

Among the other theories advanced are that the image is the result of an early photography experiment - some even think it was the work of Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci - or that it was burned on as a result of a localised nuclear reaction on the skin of Jesus.